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El Salvador

Overview

While El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America, has the region's third largest economy, poverty rates linger above 30 percent.

The country is seeking to create more jobs and income opportunities by supporting the creation and growth of small businesses and by boosting agricultural exports. For more than three decades, TechnoServe has worked to empower El Salvador’s entrepreneurs to create thriving businesses in addition to helping farmers in key sectors to connect to high-demand markets, both local and foreign.

On The Ground

Projects

Impulsa Tu Empresa

Impulsa Tu Empresa aims to help small and growing businesses boost their growth through mentoring and training. Since its launch in 2012, the program business has increased the sales of over 1,400 businesses by $48 million and generated 1,600 new jobs in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Burkina Faso.

Better Coffee Harvest

Coffee is one of the most important economic activities for rural families in many parts of Central America. The Better Coffee Harvest (COSECHA) project is a four-year initiative funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the J.M. Smucker Company and the PIMCO Foundation to reduce poverty and increase farm sales for coffee farmers in El Salvador and Nicaragua. The project seeks to train 6,000 smallholders to improve productivity, quality, farm management and financial literacy; increase farm revenues by 25 percent; and build the capacity of local organizations such as cooperatives, exporters and trade associations to boost long-term productivity and facilitate financing. Since launching in 2014, the project has trained more than 7,570 farmers – 27 percent of whom are women – and established 128 coffee demonstration plots to be used for training purposes.

Partners

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Empowering Youth Entrepreneurs in Latin America

In Latin America, youth face unique challenges in obtaining formal employment or becoming successful entrepreneurs, and the youth unemployment rate is nearly 30 percent. In partnership with the Citi Foundation, TechnoServe is working to address the challenges of youth unemployment in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panama.

Partners

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Building Coffee Growers’ Capacity

In El Salvador, coffee producer groups are key aggregators and processors of smallholder coffee. Between 2008 and 2011, TechnoServe supported these groups to become more profitable and to increase the incomes of their farmer members by implementing innovative production and processing technologies that would allow them to improve the quality of their production, minimize deforestation and environmental waste, and tap into the specialty coffee market. In partnership with the Consejo Salvadoreño del Café and Guatemala’s Asociación Nacional del Café, TechnoServe business advisors trained producer groups in industry best practices – such as the use of traceability software and quality management systems – yielding exceptional results over the project’s four-year duration. By the project’s end, TechnoServe helped to sustainably increase production by more than 2 million pounds of high-quality coffee for each year of the project, generating more than $1.5 million in sales and nearly 120,000 jobs within these coffee-producing communities.

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Supporting Smallholder Dairy Farmers

TechnoServe partnered with the Millennium Challenge Corporation to reduce poverty and boost economic development in northern El Salvador by strengthening the dairy value chain. In 2010, TechnoServe began working with a group of dairy farmers and processing plants across the region to increase local milk production and gain access to higher-paying export markets. The program focused on growing the sector while improving opportunities for women and promoting environmentally-friendly farming and processing practices.TechnoServe staff helped farmers to increase sustainable production on their farms by introducing high-quality feed, improving the milking process, and rehabilitating 1,000 acres of grazeland. Beyond the farm, the project helped to establish collection and service centers, modernize processing plants, and forge lasting connections with buyers. By the project’s end in 2012, TechnoServe helped to generate more than $2 million in sales and 1,000 new jobs across participating farms and processing plants.

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Blog Posts

October 4, 2018

We can learn a lot about solving youth unemployment by paying attention to young entrepreneurs. Changemakers like Violeta Martinez are eager to share lessons that are both context specific and universally relevant.

September 27, 2018

TechnoServe promoted a new culture of collaboration and learning across the coffee sector, from testing and evaluating new techniques in rural communities to engaging government and private stakeholders to share data, strengthening the industry as a whole.

March 8, 2018

Olga Velasquez is TechnoServe’s Monitoring and Evaluation Manager for the Better Coffee Harvests Program in Central America. For International Women’s Day, we talked with her about her experience as a woman at TechnoServe, and why good data is important for creating stronger, more gender-inclusive coffee economies.

Oscar Artiga

Resources

Downloads

TechnoServe invites your firm to participate in this competitive solicitation for developing a visual identity and website for TechnoServe’s Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cacao in the Americas Project (MOCCA).